Bob Katter
’s star Senate candidate, country singer
James Blundell
, says he will fight to lower small business penalty rates, to break the supermarket duopoly, and to scrap the carbon tax.

Mr Blundell also said the political controversy over the so-called gender wars, revived by Prime Minister Julia Gillard last week, was ridiculous.

“Gillard has been flogging the miso­gyny thing. It’s ridiculous."

He said Opposition Leader
Tony Abbot
t was “a very open minded man and yet he is pilloried in society".

Polling suggests the balance in the Senate will change substantially after the September 14 election, putting minor party candidates like Mr Blundell, who pollsters say has a good chance of being elected in Queensland, potentially in a balance-of-power role.

Speaking at the family farm Mount Malakoff outside Stanthorpe in southern Queensland, Mr Blundell, said rural people and small businesses have ­suffered under the federal Labor government.

He said a good place to start was with the punishingly high penalty rates paid by small business, a position that is also supported by independent senator
Nick Xenophon
.

“Stanthorpe gets a lot of tourism but you can hardly go and get a meal in the local town on the weekend because no one can put staff on because of the wages," Mr Blundell said.

Breath of fresh air

Touted by party leader Mr Katter as a, “breath of fresh air", the 48-year-old Golden Guitar winner said he would not be a victim of a party machine.

“The greatest miscarriage of intellect is the way the Labor Party has used
Peter Garrett
," Mr Blundell said of the rock star who recently refused to rule out a return to the music scene.

“Peter is an incredibly passionate, loyal and intelligent person, but I think they have totally neutralised him by putting him through the party process."

Mr Blundell has backed down before. An advertising campaign headed by him for US-owned Hanes underwear company in 1993 was met with scorn because of the imported product associated with it. Times have changed and he is now in the protectionist camp and wants to put pressure on supermarkets, which he says are hurting Australian-owned producers and manufacturers.

“I have just taken down the Hanes poster because the boys were giving me grief over it," he said.

“But seriously, one of my favourite policies is to try and get some control over the Coles and Woolworths duopoly. It has to be broken and ­whatever I can do to aid and abet that cause I will.

“They are going for the cheapest product they can and they are going below the cost of production to do it and if they keep doing it then the producers will fold and then it will be fully imported product."

While going against his family’s wishes that he join the National Party instead of Katter’s (his brother Peter is the Mayor of the Southern Downs Regional Council), Mr Blundell is hardly differentiated from National Party policies.

Out with the carbon tax

Repealing the carbon tax? “The carbon tax has got to go,“ he said. “I understand it was a way to try and address pollution from industry, but there has been no result."

Live cattle exports? “In my adult life the most diabolical business decision I have seen the government make was the live cattle export ban which shut the industry down within 72 hours. The first thing we need to do there is ­apologise to Indonesia."

He thinks more live export destinations should be sought.

On gambling and pokies, his views are more in line with Mr Xenophon. “I hate pokies," Mr Blundell said.

“Coles and Woolworths own pubs but they don’t like live [music] performances because of the risk associated with it, so they install pokies . . . I reckon the number of live venues has gone down 40 per cent."

His persona is a laid back country guy, but his selection caused turmoil within the party. The Katter Party’s former vice-president,
Kevin Brown
, said the choice to put Blundell as No. 1 ticket holder was “disgraceful" while state transport minister
Scott Emerson
said Katter’s party could not find anyone “so they had to go for the pop star".

His rival for the seat is former rugby league great
Glenn Lazarus
, who is standing for
Clive Palmer
’s party.

Mr Blundell doesn’t think Mr Palmer’s party will pack too many punches. “Palmer is a well-intentioned businessman but I just don’t think he has the integrity. If I am proved wrong I will buy him a case of beer."